Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Prof sentenced to prison for child luring, pornography

ORILLIA - A university professor who preyed on less-fortunate teens by promising them fame and fortune to model nude was sent to prison Tuesday.

Hugh (Sandy) Thorburn, 51, pleaded guilty to child luring, making child pornography and inviting children to participate in prostitution. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and his name will be placed on the sex offender registry for 20 years.

Thorburn — who worked as an art and music director for the University of Toronto, McMaster and Waterloo, where he received three teaching awards — had been in counselling for his addiction to pornography prior to his arrest, court heard.

While working at Lakehead University’s campus in Orillia in 2013, he set up various Facebook accounts with alias names to advertise he was a professional photographer. He told the girls he would make them famous fashion models, court heard.

“He met them in motel rooms with food, wine coolers and lingerie,” Justice George Beatty said in his sentencing remarks. “He tried to encourage them to take their clothes off and have sex with him." (more...)